Frequently, workers in offices spend significant amounts of time using computers. Many of the tasks performed by such workers are repetitive. As merely an example, let us consider a data entry clerk for a financial institution, such as a bank. One aspect of this individual's responsibilities includes transferring information from one computer file to another. For example, let us consider a bank in which information about its customers had previously been stored in signature cards which have now been scanned and stored as image files in a computer database. Such information might include the customer's name, address, social security number, mother's maiden name, and a copy of the customer's signature.
As part of a scheme to automate customer banking, the bank has scanned all of its signature cards into a computer and converted them into .gif format (Graphic Interface File) files. Each signature card has been converted into two image files representing the front and the back of each card, respectively. The front image file is named #name.gif and the back image file is named #name.back.gif, wherein “#name” represents the customer's actual name. It is the data entry clerk's responsibility to open up each of these .gif files and manually type in data from those signature cards into a database using a database application program. Accordingly, for each customer, the data entry clerk (1) opens the .gif file corresponding to the front of the signature card, (2) opens the file corresponding to the back of the same signature card, (3) sizes the windows displaying the two files so as to take up the top left hand quadrant of the screen and the bottom left hand quadrant of the screen, respectively, (4) opens up another window which provides a GUI (Graphical User Interface) in which the data entry clerk can type in information from the two aforementioned .gif files, (5) sizes and positions that window to take up the right-hand half of the screen, and (6) enters the data shown in the signature card files displayed in the left hand half of his computer screen into the GUI which is on the right hand half of the screen. These steps must be repeated for every customer.
It is well known in the prior art to provide a operator interface program that automatically sizes application program windows based on operator preferences. For instance, most software packages, such as those that run under the Microsoft™ Windows operating system, have the ability to size and position themselves in windows that are the same size and position that the programs had been when they were last closed. For example, if the last time a computer operator opened a particular word processing application program on a particular computer, the user interface window for that program was positioned and sized in a particular manner, the next time the program is opened, it opens up in a window of the same size and position. This particular feature is also used with respect to other windows within that program. Thus, for instance, if the last time a user closed a sub-window, such as a sub-window for selecting a file to be opened, that window was sized to one quarter the total screen size and positioned in the upper right hand corner, the next time the user selects to open a pre-existing file, the corresponding sub-window appears with the same size and position. If the user resizes or repositions the sub-window before closing it, the operating system software remembers the latest size and position. The next time that particular sub-window is opened, it will be opened with the latest size and position. However, documents (i.e., computer files) that are opened within the application program are opened to a standard size each time.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved operator interface for a computer display.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for automatically assigning desirable display attributes to files opened with an application program.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for automatically opening files of particular types having desirable display attributes particular to that type.
It is one further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for automatically opening files of particular types having desirable display attributes as dictated by the operator's preferences.